Manfred rules with an open mind
LAKELAND, Fla. — The idea of starting extra innings with a runner on second base in a major league game is repulsive.
Good thing the Gulf Coast League, one of the two Rookie leagues where that rule is to be implemented, is the lowest rung of the minor leagues.
Commissioner Rob Manfred yesterday said he thinks of rule changes in three categories: those intended to speed up the game by eliminating dead time; those to promote action in the game itself, like an altered strike zone that may be on its way; and those with a more tailored purpose.
The last group is where the runner on second rule comes in.
“We don’t really expect that we’re ever going to apply them at the major league level, at least in the short term,” Manfred said.
“In Rookie ball, where crowds are small, games are really developmental, starting the 10th inning with a runner on base makes sense because there’s really no developmental reason to play 18 innings and end with the shortstop pitching,” Manfred continued. “And who knows? If we remain open-minded, we may learn something from this experiment that’s helpful moving forward.”
It makes sense for Rookie ball. But you hear it at the end there: Manfred left wiggle room for the future.
You don’t even have to be an old-timey baseball purist to cringe at such a change in the big leagues. (How would you count the stats from those situations?)
But where Manfred actually succeeds here — and has from the start of his tenure — is his openmindedness. He’s willing to try new things, and talk about those matters publicly. He drew a lot of ire when he took the job for even mentioning the possibility of eliminating defensive shifts, which didn’t happen.
But he should think over everything. That’s his job. An occasional willingness to think out loud is a positive.
“Everything we try, I try to remain open-minded about,” Manfred said. “We went ahead with (the second-base runner) rule in a very limited basis because we felt it made sense in that developmental league. We’re going to watch it. Maybe we learn something that changes our mind, that it ought to be a broad rule. That’s not our current thinking.”
Other rule changes may enter play this year in the majors, but require the union’s approval. The strike zone was lowered in the past, and now the commissioner wants to bring it back up.
“The theory is the pitch below the knee is being called a strike more frequently, that that particular pitch is hard to hit and that forcing pitchers up in the zone would force more action,” Manfred said.
One concern is that hitters would simply walk more.
A reduction in time for managers to challenge plays is on the table. That’s what Manfred calls a “dead-time” change.
Four pitches for an intentional walk? He wants it gone.
“I know it’s a small thing, I’m painfully aware of how infrequently it happens,” Manfred said, “and how little impact it has on time of game. But it’s dead time.”
When Manfred slapped the St. Louis Cardinals with a $2 million fine and took away a pair of draft picks for hacking into the Houston Astros’ systems, the commissioner was conscious of the punishment he gave the Red Sox last summer for violating international amateur signing rules.
The Sox were caught signing players for a price effectively higher than the $300,000 limitation they had.
The punishment: no international signees in the 2016-17 period that ends in June, and five players signed in 2015 — players involved in the transgression — were made free agents.
“I try to make sure that the disciplines that are imposed are reasonable in relation to one another, and in relation to the offense that occurred,” Manfred said. “I do think that those two penalties make sense. When you line them up next to each other, and think through all of the facts surrounding both situations.”
Both cases were unprecedented. Chris Correa, a former Cardinals executive responsible for the breaches, is in prison and banned from baseball.
Some around baseball considered Manfred’s penalty for the Cardinals to be light.
“With respect to people who say it was not severe enough,” Manfred said, “the Cardinals in the amateur draft will have the least pool money available and their pool will be $2 million less than the club right above them. There is no club in major league baseball who would like to find themselves in that position.”